It would be appropriate for all new posters to write an "intro" thread in the Welcome and Introductions forum and discussing your faith, whether Catholic or protestant, and your impetus for being here at DCF.

Rule 0: DON'T PANIC. Most of the rules below are simply common sense and common courtesy. Apply those and you may never hear from a moderator.

Rule 0.1: You are responsible for knowing what's in here. Ignorance is not an excuse.

1) For those who have come here with questions about the Catholic Faith, welcome. Many participants in our discussions are waiting to answer you as best as we can.

Please do your best to ask your questions as clearly as possible. If you have lots of questions, you'll probably get better answers if you ask just one or two at a time and ask followup questions until you're sure you understand, or at least understand as well as you're going to.

2) If you've come here to debate the truth of the Catholic faith with Catholics with the intent of proving us wrong, we're more than happy to answer those who merely want to understand better, but we're not in the business of providing a platform for anyone to attempt to draw people away from Catholicism. If you appear to be attempting to do that, the board moderators can revoke your posting privileges without warning.

PM'ing those inquiring into Catholicism in an attempt to dissuade them is a bannable offense.

3) Debate on a deeper (and sometimes perhaps more excitable) level is conducted in our Apologetics Forum. If you find yourself wanting to argue a point in-depth, it is better to start a new thread there. If you don't start a new thread, the moderators may do it for you by moving all or part of the old thread, and they (being a busy bunch) may move too much or too little of the thread into the debate room. Spare them the trouble when possible.

4) For those who are already Catholic and want to deepen your own faith and help answer questions, you are welcome here as well. Everyone has areas of special interest, but please do your best to stay on issues central to the faith and avoid your pet agendas. If a question is asked on a controversial topic, please answer it as factually as you can.

5) Rational thought and on-topic discussions of your personal experiences are encouraged. Personal attacks, taunting, and baiting will result in your messages being deleted without warning or apology, and repeated offenses may result in your posting privileges being revoked without warning or apology.

6) Sending porn through the pm system is TOTALLY unacceptable. The pm system itself is inaccessible to anyone outside of individual accountholders, but images are saved to a central database which is monitored regularly.

7) DO NOT post bizarre speculations about Atlantis or the healing properties of something you found under your sink. Such posts will be deleted immediately.

8) DO NOT post prophecies or messages from unapproved apparitions. The only exception to this rule is when such topics are posted for the purpose of inquiry or debate. Such inquiries go in Catholicism 101 and such debates go in the Lyceum.

9) Catholic-convert.com is not the place to "pick up chicks".

10) For everyone: If you believe you see a violation of these rules or other rules of common courtesy, please report the post using the Report feature or send a private message to the moderator(s) of this forum or to the administrators, who will handle it from there.

11) I want to remind everyone that it would be a good idea to NOT have your email made public in your profile. Although lurkers can't access your profile, there is an email button displayed at the bottom of your posts and lurkers can click on that button to obtain your email address.

12) Please title your threads something that at least gives a hint as to what they're about. If you don't, the title may be changed without explanation so as to facilitate discussion on the forum.

13) Please don't make really long posts, especially long quotes. Condense your posts so your points will stand out clearer.

When replying to the lengthy post of another, please don't quote their entire post! Quote the points you want to address, or paraphrase them, and then respond. It's very tiring for moderators to have to read through these long posts.

14) Cite your sources! Please try to make them reliable and verifiable sources, (rather than some obscure writing in a dusty tome stored in a library in a Tibetan monastery).

Do not post complete articles. You can post excerpts with a link to the article. Keep in mind that copyright laws apply to the Internet.

15) Hit and run posts will be removed.

Spammers will be deactivated and their internet service and email providers will be contacted and the abuse reported.

If you are a member in good standing, you may post your website (ask for permission first, please) or advertise your service or product in the DCF Shopping Mall. The Shopping Mall is restricted, so you'll have to contact an Admin for permission to post in there.

16) Posters who refuse to discuss the topics they post will be removed from the thread.

17) Be prepared to back up your claims. Personal opinion is not considered documentation. Silence is not considered documentation.

18) Sometimes posts or topics will be either moved or deleted. This is done by moderators and administrators for a variety of reasons. If you have ANY questions about a moved or deleted post or topic, ask the forum moderator or an Admin about it IN A PRIVATE MESSAGE.

If you ask about moved or deleted threads or topics publicly, you may be doing something harmful. Please do not do it. Ask any questions IN A PRIVATE MESSAGE. And be patient about getting a response. We are all volunteers.

MOST OF ALL, DO NOT COMPLAIN in public about your post or topic being moved or deleted. Take it up in a private message. If you complain in public about your post or topic being moved or deleted, there will be consequences.

19) Decisions made by the Administrators are not made willy-nilly or helter skelter. We discuss problems that need our attention and we make decisions based on those discussions.

20) We try to keep reprimands private. Just because you don't read a post reprimanding someone who you think needs it or who you have complained about, please don't assume that means it has been swept under the rug or ignored.

If you make a public complaint about something that should be taken up in private with a mod or admin, it will be ignored until you take the time to go through proper channels and contact a Moderator or Administrator. Your post, if detected, will be deleted without response.

21) If you take it upon yourself to email Steve Ray with a complaint, please be sure that it is not trivial, be sure to include documentation (preferably un-edited and in context), and please be sure that you have exhausted all other avenues to resolve your problem. It would be good if you would include any pertinent PM's or emails exchanged between you and the Moderator/Administrator handling your complaint or concern so that he can see what has or has not been done to resolve your problem.

Problems that come to the Admin/Mod staff which cannot be resolved satisfactorily, or about which I am in doubt, are taken to Mr. Ray, by me. He is our final authority on this board, but please keep in mind that he is a very busy man. Your concerns matter very much to him, and to the Admin/Mod staff.

The Forum Moderators are volunteers. They have volunteered their time to help keep the board running smoothly. If you have a problem with any of their actions, please pm an Admin with your complaint.

Do not, under any circumstances, disrespect these people publicly or privately. They don't deserve that kind of treatment, and I'm not going to put up with it. They have a tough job to do and I'm sure they would appreciate it if you showed them some courtesy when they try to do their job.

Calling Pope Benedict XVI "Benny" is not allowed. Many find it disrespectful, so I've set the word censor to catch any slip-ups. Trying to get around the censor by using replacement letters, numbers, or symbols will result in a vacation from the board for two weeks.

B16 is akin to JP2 and can be used for brevity's sake.
Signum CrucisAdministrator

Don't register with the intention of presenting yourself as anti-Catholic or non-Catholic, engage in lengthy debates, only to reveal later that you are really Catholic (whether you really are or not) and were "testing" us. That will get you banned permanently.

Occasionally a staff member will edit a person's post and leave a comment. Their comments will be either green for a moderator or red for an administrator. The only people allowed to post in green or red are staff members.

If a post is edited by a staff member, either with or without a comment from said staff member, it is against the rules of this board for the poster to change the edit or delete the staff member's comments. Such an action will earn a suspension of no less than 10 days.